Article: Fun, Fearless, Female in Cosmopolitan PH

Wow, a full article. I’m very lucky to be featured as this month’s fun fearless female in Cosmopolitan Philippines.

Fun fearless female special

The is originally published in the January 2004 issue of Cosmopolitan Philippines.

In 1997, the Internet was just beginning to boom commercially in the Philippines. Cybercafes were beginning to sprout in the city, computer colleges had begun their fight for enrollment supremacy, and a Computer Science sophomore fell in love with cyberspace.

Pinay Internaut Cheryl Fuerte–known to the cyberworld as Inday–is a five-time Philippine Web Award winner and one of the very few females in the field of I.T. “I had the advantage of being the ‘first mover,'” she explains. “The first time I joined the Webby Awards, I was still in college while the contenders were already working.” Cheryl was only 20 and just about the graduate from a degree in Computer Science from De La Salle University. The website she created and designed–a Donna Cruz fan site–won the People’s Choice Award, and for the next five years, her personal and professional websites were consistent finalists and winners.

Her love affair with websites and anything computers began with a cursory exit interview with the high school counselor. “Nung fourth year high school ako, sabi ng counselor ko ‘ineng, dalawa lang dapat ang kunin mo sa college: law o computer science.” She figured that taking up law would take too much of her time, so she chose the latter. But it was during her second year in college when the school began providing Internet and e-mail access to its students, that Cheryl was bitten by the cyberbug.

Pinay Internaut CHERYL FUERTE Featured in the January 2004 issue of Cosmopolitan Philippines, in their “fun fearless females” section.

She discovered that “if you have a website and you make it very very good, hindi mo na kailangan maging artista, so to speak. With your website you can say anything–you become an instant publisher and producer.” Her quiet friendliness and down-to-earth candor with both fans and friends also has encouraged a few young women to pursue a career in web design.

“if you have a website and you make it very very good, hindi mo na kailangan maging artista, so to speak. With your website you can say anything–you become an instant publisher and producer.”

Like many adored personalities, she goes by a cheeky monicker–in the cyberworld she’s affectionately known as Inday. She christened herself one day when her ninang’s child ran up to her while she was doing the dishes, and asked for her name. She impulsively answered “Tita Inday” and began using the same for her personal website. “When you say ‘The Official Website of Cheryl Fuerte’ it doesn’t mean anything, it doesn’t stick to you,” explains Cheryl. “But when you say ‘Inday,’ it’s short and unique. It has branding.”

With plans to refurbish and overhaul both her personal website and the Donna Cruz fansite (“I’ve been a fan ever since I first saw her in Villa Quintana! Feeling ko naka-identify ako sa character niya.”), Cheryl says that there indeed is a distinct pleasure in creating websites that are both extremely creative and functional. “My passion is designing usable websites. When you design and think of something that’s wonderful, something that’s really used by the people, it feels really good.”

The is originally published in the January 2004 issue of Cosmopolitan Philippines.

UNHELPFUL TWEETS

UNHELPFUL PICS

HELLO THERE! Welcome to the Unhelpful Blog. This blog is irregularly updated and is generally unhelpful to most of you as it is mainly about me, people I care for, random things I like, my interests, and stuff from my old blog. It’s not a blog that specifically finds unhelpful or helpful things. I do hope you find a thing or two useful though. Thanks for dropping by! ❤ -Unhelpful Blogger / Cheryl / Inday (Why Inday?)

PS. If you like the pictures on top, they are mostly in my Flickr page. I’m known as Kimmie on Flickr. Yes I have many internet names.

So who’s Inday and why are there posts from 1998?

If you knew me as Inday (God forbid I don’t know why you’d be looking for me now), I’ve long stopped updating my late ’90s sites: IndayWorks, LuvKoSiInday, IndayXP, although a lot of old stuff from those are migrated here. It was fun, thank you for being a part of the sites. If you know me as Cheryl, this proud old interview explains it: WHY INDAY?.

If you don’t know me at all and have read up to this part- THANK YOU!

-Unhelpful Blogger

Where’s Barangay Inday?

If you knew me as Inday and you also know Barangay Inday, was happy with our friendliness back then and are looking for us, you’ve come to the right place. We’re only in touch with a few Barangay Inday members now, mostly on Facebook. I’ve imported a few old Barangay Inday blog entries here for a trip to memory lane.

PS. We’re looking for Dessyang and Joseph since 2003. Kung Pao also is MIA.

Where’s Donna Cruz’s site?

Inday cannot be Inday without her number one star, Donna Cruz. Donna’s site is still up, for over 2 decades now: DonnaCruz.com

Do you still make other sites?

Of course! It’s my lifetime love, weaving the web. My day job largely revolves around it. Some of my free time too. If I think about it, I generally don’t have much of a life outside the internet.

WHERE CAN I GET FREE WEB HOSTING?

(with free McDonald’s meal?) Haha! I’ve long stopped the operations of HEYEY! (This is the web hosting service I’ve set up in the Philipppines, which gives free hosting to youth/young non-profit groups).

BEST VIEWED WITH:

Just kidding.

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All opinions here are mine and do not in any way represent that of any organisations I am affiliated, employed, or had been employed with. KBYETHANKS!